Bucs’ Aguayo Still Confident Despite Rough Outing Against The Rams

Seconds after Bucs’ rookie kicker Roberto Aguayo missed his extra point attempt in the first quarter, social media erupted with those second guessing the decision to select the former Seminole in the second round of the 2016 NFL Draft.

And while fans, and even head coach Dirk Koetter, are frustrated, Aguayo seemed to take it in stride.

Bucs K Roberto Aguayo – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Following the game Aguayo stood by his locker and answered questions regarded his performance that included the missed extra point, and later a 41-yard field goal.

“Just rushed (the extra point) a little bit, got in my head at the end of the day moved on after that. (I) wanted more opportunities but you got to move on from those.”

Aguayo didn’t have an answer for the missed field goal.

“I mean, you know, it wasn’t my day,” Aguayo, who has missed two field goals in three games, said. “Excited for next week to move on. Excited to get back to my craft and it’s what I do. Just recuperate next week and come back and be ready for Denver.

Aguayo said despite the rough outing, he still believes he can get the job done.

“Confidence is always there. Excited to get back on the field next week and do my kicks. Times like this are going to happen and you just got to go back. My confidence isn’t shaken, I know what to do. Excited to get back on the field and go kick again.”

About the author

Mark Cook currently is the director of editorial content and Bucs beat writer and has written for PewterReport.com since 2011. Cook has followed the Buccaneers since 1977 when he first began watching football with his Dad and is fond of the 1979 Bucs team that came within 10 points of going to a Super Bowl. His favorite Bucs game is still the 1979 divisional playoff win 24-17 over the Eagles. In his spare time Cook enjoys playing guitar, fishing, surfing and family time at the beach. In addition, Cook can be found in front of a television or in Doak Campbell any time the FSU Seminoles are playing. Cook is a native of Pinecrest in Eastern Hillsborough County and has written for numerous publications including the Tampa Tribune, In the Field and Ya'll Magazine. Cook can be reached at mark@pewterreport.com

14 Comments

He ought to shut the freak UP! Make easy FG’s and extra points that don’t cost his team games for a while and then talk. But “confidence?” NOBODY was that today, NOBODY! And I don’t give a DAMN when he was drafted, a useless kicker is a useless kicker.

I am going to lay off him. I made a lot of early critcisms of the team moving up to take a kicker. And I know that he is going to have a lot of pressure now. That usually does not help kickers. We are going to need him down the line as the season plays out. But Bucs need to learn from this.

I give Dirk Koetter credit for admitting we have a losing culture. It is going to take a couple of more years before we can play consistent winning football. We have some good pieces in place however we need help everywhere especially at safety and offensive line. Smith is not a left tackle, Hawley is a gamer but average at best and we need to say goodbye to Conte as a starter. Lastly, when is our offensive line going to cut down on the penalties?

After watching Roberto in college I understood the logic of getting the position secured for a decade. Unfortunately, his FSU success has not yet translated to the NFL. No one really knows much about rookie kickers’ points of origin. They just seem to show up in Training Camp, struggle for a while, bounce around from team to team until one day they’re good enough they stick. I know we think of extra points as automatic because they used to be so. But the League changed the rules because of that.

Yes this week the missed FG and PAT potentially cost 6 points, but so too did the blown coverage. missed tackles, overthrown passes, tipped ball for INT, strip sack TD return and the leftover timeout. But, it should have never gotten down to that.

Martin “Automatica” Gramatica spoke on the jumbotron. Ahhh, those were the days………………..for a while.

Shame how it came down to the kicker? If he had made the extra point and Field Goal which was a fairly easy one, then he would have been kicking a field goal to win the game instead of us having to try for a touchdown.

Also, the Bucs would not have had to go for two point conversions the rest of the game and could have actually been tied or n the lead. It was disasterous and those points left on the field ALWAYS come back to hurt teams. NFL games are usually closely contested and FG kickers who can’t be depended on are HUGE liabilities. It SUCKS that just because Aguayo was drafted in the 2nd round the Buccaneers apparently feel obligated to keeping him through the season putting every game left at risk as well.

I had a strong opinions about drafting this kicker in the 2nd round on this message board right after the draft. I provided statistics that showed the top 15 most accurate kickers of all time were mostly undrafted and that we had two of them in Barth and Bryant that were in the top 15. Janiskowski drafted in the first round is not even in the top 15. So Licht is saying that Aguayo is more valuable than two position players that we could have drafted instead. That is laughable. If Licht was so hell bent on drafting a kicker, he could have traded the 2nd round to the Cowboys for Dan Bailey, who is the most accurate kicker of all time and was undrafted. I think the Cowboys may have taken that offer. Kicking in college at FSU when you are up big is nothing like the pressure of kicking in the NFL when most games are decided by 3 points. Very surprised that Scott Reynolds even backed up this draft pick on draft day.

This kicker ended his college career looking shaken. Missed many makable kicks and had a kick blocked that cost FSU the game vs Clemson I believe. If he doesnt have any confidence that does not surprise me at all it is simply where he left off in college.

This was Lichts worst move by a mile including all of the FA busts. The fact that Koetter benched him and went for 2 tells me all I need to know. Koetter plays it straight and I am sure he was in Lichts office on Monday morning asking him to bring in a competent kicker.

Aguayo was supposed to be automatic on everything under 40 yards. As a first year coach, Koetter cant afford to wait on a rookie kicker to develop. He will be fired before that ever happens. Stay tuned, this kicker is going to create a rift between coach and GM real soon if he keeps on losing games for us